Marie-Elsa Bragg

The Reverend and The Honourable Marie-Elsa Roche Bragg (born 1965){{cite news|work =The Daily Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/bbc/11762778/Melvyn-Braggs-daughter-My-father-has-been-a-tortured-man-all-my-life.html|title= Melvyn Bragg's daughter: 'My father has been a tortured man all my life'|access-date = 15 April 2025|date=25 July 2015|author= Stanford, Peter}} is an English writer, Anglican priest and therapist.{{cite web |title=Sleeping Letters |url=https://marie-elsabragg.com/books/ |website=marie-elsabragg.com |access-date=19 August 2020}}{{cite news |last1=Halsall |first1=Martin |title=Towards Mellbreak by Marie-Elsa Bragg |url=https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2017/1-september/books-arts/book-reviews/cumbria-re-wilded |access-date=19 August 2020 |work=The Church Times |date=1 September 2017}}{{cite news |last1=Thomas-Corr |first1=Johanna |title=Marie-Elsa Bragg: 'There really is no shame to suffering' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/30/marie-elsa-bragg-memoir-sleeping-letters-interview |access-date=19 August 2020 |work=The Guardian |date=30 November 2019}}{{cite news |last1=Wilson |first1=Fiona |title=Marie-Elsa Bragg: 'I'm not aware of having lost ten years of memories' |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/im-not-aware-of-having-lost-ten-years-of-memories-because-i-was-literally-not-aware-of-that-time-passing-882r8kfqb |access-date=19 August 2020 |work=The Times |date=8 April 2017 |language=en}}

Early life and education

Bragg describes herself as "half French, half Cumbrian", but was born in London where she spent her childhood. Her parents are novelist and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg and his first wife, writer and artist Marie-Elisabeth Roche, who died at the family home in Kew, London when Marie-Elsa was aged six.{{Cite news |last=Agnew |first=Megan |date=2024-07-22 |title="I still long for her": Marie‑Elsa Bragg opens up about her mother's suicide — interview |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/i-still-long-for-her-marie-elsa-bragg-opens-up-about-her-mothers-suicide-interview-vft7rc7ph |access-date=2024-07-22 |work=The Times|language=en}}

Her maternal grandfather{{cn|date=July 2024}} was {{ill|Jean Roche|fr|Jean Roche (recteur)}} (1901–1992) who, together with his wife Andrée Conradi Roche (c1903–1936), was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work on the thyroid gland and was rector of the Sorbonne between 1961 and 1969.{{Cite news |date=1961-09-07 |title=M. JEAN ROCHE NOUVEAU RECTEUR DE L'ACADÉMIE DE PARIS |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1961/09/07/m-jean-roche-nouveau-recteur-de-l-academie-de-paris_2275367_1819218.html |access-date=2024-07-27 |work=Le Monde.fr |language=fr}}

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Bragg studied aspects of Judaism at Leo Baeck College, Karl Barth and systematic doctrine at King's College London, philosophy and theology at the University of Oxford, and studied for ordination at Ripon College Cuddesdon. She has an MA in prose fiction from the University of East Anglia.

Work

Bragg has written a novel, Towards Mellbreak (Mellbreak is a mountain in Cumbria next to Crummock Water),{{cite web |last1=Huxley |first1=David |title=Towards Mellbreak |url=https://www.friendsofthelakedistrict.org.uk/towards-mellbreak |website=Friends of the Lake District |access-date=25 July 2024 |language=en |date=15 April 2020}}{{cite web |last1=Hyrkas |first1=Teri |title=Towards Mellbreak |url=https://preachthestory.com/towards-mellbreak/ |website=preachthestory.com |publisher=Preach The Story |access-date=25 July 2024}} and a book, Sleeping Letters, which she wrote during a silent retreat and describes as "a mixture of poetry, prose and fragments of un-sent letters to both her mother and father", on the death of her mother when she was a child.{{Cite news |title=Faith among the fells|author= Bragg, Marie-Elsa |url=https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2017/7-april/features/features/faith-among-the-fells |date=7 April 2017|access-date=15 April 2025 |work=Church Times}}

Bragg is a spiritual director, working with groups or individuals. She has been part-time assistant to the Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons; has been a programme director in leadership development at the Said Business School in Oxford; is a director of a coaching and leadership company Westminster Leadership; and has led an interfaith women's project on the difficulties of religious life, among other work. She has worked in a number of London parishes and was a duty chaplain at Westminster Abbey for ten years. She has a connection with Sénanque Abbey in southern France, and with the religious and literary traditions of the Lake District.{{cite web |title=Biography |url=http://marie-elsabragg.com/about/ |website=marie-elsabragg.com |publisher=Marie-Elsa Bragg |access-date=25 July 2024}}

She is co-president of the Words by the Water Literary Festival in Keswick.{{Cite web |title=Words by the Water – A Festival of Words and Ideas at Theatre by the Lake, Keswick |url=https://www.wordsbythewaterkeswick.com/ |access-date=2024-07-22 |website=Words by the Water Keswick |language=en}}

Selected publications

{{cite book|last=Bragg | first=Marie-Elsa | title=Towards Mellbreak | date=2018 | publisher=Vintage|isbn=978-1784705015}}
{{cite book|last=Bragg | first=Marie-Elsa R. | title=Sleeping Letters | date=2019 | publisher=Chatto & Windus|isbn=978-1784743161}}
Roche Bragg, Marie-Elsa (2023) Contributes to Feminist Theologies: Interstices and Fractures – Decolonizing Theology. Rowman & Littlefield. {{ISBN|978-1978712393}}